People have been talking with me, Tom Anderson, about wanting Transition Whatcom to have a Re-Skilling Fair. I think it is a great idea and am willing to put some energy into helping organize such an event. I could see an even this fall where lots of people and groups set up booths and displays to share their skills and ideas for how we can make our individual lives more resilient. It could be a great big party where we get to learn new things, find out what is happening in our community with ways to learn new skills, find specific opportunities to learn skills we are interested in and just plain have a great time celebrating life in Whatcom County.

I am really excited by the possibilities. I also am real clear that although I can help organize such and event I would need lots of help. My request in the moment is that if you are interested in this event taking shape that you respond to this discussion with ideas for it. Things that could be included, where we could hold it, groups that could get excited about it and other ideas that come to your mind when you think about a fun fantastic opportunity for RE-SKILLING your life.

Also if you have some energy and passion to help organize it let me know, we will hold a meeting in early February to get organized!!

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Tom- This is so seredipidous! I have also been talking to others about a BIG reskilling/barter faire/maker faire, all around amazing, renaissance faire in the true sense of the word! There are some folks who are REALLY excited about doing a local Barter Faire (go here for inspiration...http://www.okanoganfamilyfaire.net/), and some local groups psyched about a possible Maker Faire (inspiration here....http://makerfaire.com/ but with a focus on human powered inventions!), and the Reskilling Faire fits in perfectly. A stage with music, food vendors, roving entertainment, great food, local everything...demonstrations, you name it!

Anyone I talk to about this is excited and wants to help. I don't think we'll have any trouble getting an army of volunteers. Definitely- let's all put our heads together! This incredible, timely, fabulous, memorable, valuable, unforgettable, colorful, musical, festival CAN happen!

I know that I am really interested in seeing this get moving and would love to volunteer the Alternative Library as a space that we could meet to plan for it as well as a place to host workshops. We could also help advertise within our network and may have contacts with some skilled teachers to lead skill-shares.

I imagine people coordinating to share there common skills together in booths. Maybe if we could come up with a list of skills people would like share, or to see shared, at the fair, then we could put the list out there for volunteers to sign up to work in a booth they feel qualified to teach. Then the people signed up for each booth could coordinate how they will do their booth.

The fair could also be used as a fundraiser for Transition by opening it to the public at a nominal fee, like $5 or $10.

Two possible locations come to my mind, Bloedel Donavon and the Farmers Market.

Some skills that I imagine being there are sewing, fiber crafts, carving, building something useful. If we did the fair downtown, we could also use the co-op extention building for a booth on canning and other food preservation techniques.

My housemates and I at Riverhaven would be thrilled to have a table with different skills demonstrated to share. I'll start the brainstorming and see what kind of suggestions we can come up with for the bigger picture organization. THanks for starting it going!

OKAY! All Reskilling (and Barter) fanatics- arise! We need to get the ball rolling on a big, old fantasical, all-around practical yet hugely fun faire to beat all faires. This will be the First Annual Transition Festival, (or whatever we end up calling it)...so be a part of birthing this life-changing community event! Just show up at the Bellingham Community Food Co-op Community Building at 1220 North Forest, from 6-7:30 pm on March 15. Bring your ideas,your enthusiasm, your willingness to volunteer for six months to make this happen!

I don't know about the barter angle, but if you have vendor booths with suff for sale, the folks as Seattle Electric Bike said they would like to participate. They were at the Great Unleashing and really liked it. They were just here this afternoon doing demos for myself and a few neighbors and asked if I knew if TW had any big events coming soon. This seems to be the most likely possibility.